The event is organised by the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC), whose mission is:

to develop the personal qualities essential to members of the British Armed Forces through adventurous sail training in the Service environment.

The circumnavigation is planned to include participation in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race in December 2009 and Antigua Race week in May 2010.  All legs will be conducted as Adventure Training expeditions and will be either cruises in company or races in the spirit of Corinthian competition, with the emphasis on safety, seamanship and teamwork. Each crew consists of a skipper, a mate, and 12 others divided into two or three watches. Skipper, mate and watch leaders will all hold relevant qualifications and have done the required amount of sea time in their roles.

The boats are Challenge 67s, designed by David Thomas and Thanos Condylis, of which Devonport Management Ltd. built 10 as the one-design class for the 1992 British Steel Challenge. Two skippers placed in this race have been in the news recently – Mike Golding (second) and Pete Goss (third).

By 1996, the race was known as the BT Global Challenge. There were now 14 boats and Mike Golding won.

I’ll be in Gosport (the home of JSASTC) myself in April and in early June, so I hope to be able to take a look at the boats before they leave UK shores. They will probably have changed quite a bit since they were first designed and built – for a start, we’ve learned a lot about preventing the rigging failures caused by the incessant slapping and banging on long ocean passages. Francis Chichester’s Gipsy Moth IV’s stainless steel mast tangs suffered from metal fatigue en route to Australia, and several of the original Challenge 67s suffered rigging screw failures in both 19923 and 1996/7.

Since I lived for many years with my parents in Locksheath, it was heartwarming to see an account on Mike Golding’s visit to Hook-with-Warsash Primary School , which is just down the road.

Mike is beginning to sound as though he feels that the Vendée Globe is unfinished business. This race, which young turks like Armel le Cleac’h (and Sam Davies, for that matter) see as a natural progrssion for sucessful Figaro competitors, attracted bigger French crowds than the Tour de France. It also beat all records for media coverage – three French TV stations provided live coverage of Mich’ Desj’ arriving in Les Sables d’Olonne for two hours. The only thing that could have interrupted the show would have been a total power outage. And judging by what EDF have done in my neck of the woods over this last winter, I reckon they’d have had the emergency generator trucks connected up before he reached the shore.

What’s really heartening is that the UK media started to take notice this year – which they jolly well ought to, considering how UK skippers have featured over the years. Let’s hope the recession doesn’t hang on long enough to prevent more UK sponsors from signing up in time for 2012. Forget the Olympics…

While the competitors are trying to control their frayed nerves and balance sleep against the need to be alert for every change in the wind, let’s take a look at one of the favourites, and certainly the most experienced non-Frenchman left in the race – Mike Golding.

Those of you who followed the 2006 Velux 5 Oceans race will remember how he did a 90-mile beat in heavy weather in the Southern Ocean to rescue Alex Thomson after Alex’s keel snapped – only to be dismasted himself and forced to retire later in the race. The video below tells the heart-rending story.

Never mind the weather – watch the body language.

This video is also imbedded in an excellent interview with yachtpals about a month ago. The more I see of that site, the more I like it.